Interpreting Folklore Through Insider’s Cultural Lens

Interpretation has different facets based on the authors’
experiences, inclinations, theoretical knowledge, and cultural
backgrounds. An emic or etic explanation, shallow or deep
play, thin or thick descriptions, watery or amorphous, form or
formless, and the interpreter may tatter the curtains with daggers
and murder the author. Yet contemporary explanations in the
light of epistemological domains of thoughts and theories may
discern a collage or decollage, a patch or a pattern, chaos or
fractals. It is against this backdrop that two myths of Manipur,
the ‘Konthoujam Nongkarol’ and ‘Khongjomnubee Nonggarol’,
are being examined with the anthropological lens to explore the
underlying anatomies of meanings - lines, angles, curves, cavities
and the wholeness.